Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has said that Nigeria can never grow if it continues to neglect the education sector.
Ikpeazu, who made the observation during a town hall meeting organised by the Umu-Aba Connect Association at Terminus Hotel, Aba, said that his administration places premium on education and has been training primary school teachers under the tutelage of Australian instructors.
He said that a total of 1,500 primary school teachers had so far been retrained while some primary school teachers from the state would soon travel to Australia for more training.
Ikpeazu assured that by the end of this year, the strength of education in the state would have grown as a total of 304 schools are being rehabilitated across the state while four model schools are under construction, adding that he intends to reverse enrolment from private to public schools.
The Abia chief executive said that he has been able to redefine Aba as a brand as the Aba man is known for his hard work and resilience and attributed all he has achieved despite challenges to the “can-do-it-spirit” of the Aba man.
He regretted that some of the things he is doing now ought to have been done long ago and promised that his speed of work rather than diminish will increase in 2019.
The governor also assured that the state government would take over the construction of Obohia and Ohanku roads by December this year if the NDDC contractors handling the project fail to do something on the roads.
Cosmos Ndukwe, deputy speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, in his speech extolled the virtues of the governor for taking Aba to the pinnacle where an Aba person could be proud of.
Earlier, the president, Umu-Aba Connect Association, Emeka Okwaraji who described the association as a non-government and non-profit organisation said the aim of the town hall meeting was to create a conducive platform for government and Aba people to interact and to pave way for more development in the city.
He commended Ikpeazu for the quality infrastructure he has been providing in the state and assured him of their support in 2019.
UDOKA AGWU, UMUAHIA
